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Big second quarter lifts Eastside over Madison County

DANIELSVILLE — Eastside’s 28 unanswered points in the second quarter were too much for Madison County to overcome on Friday as the Eagles defeated 42-14 on Friday.

“The big thing is we’ve just got to try to get better up front every game, every week,” Madison County coach Chris Smith said. “The big thing for us is that we’re young, but we just got to keep battling and keep fighting.”

Neither Madison County (0-5, 0-2 Region 8-AAAA) nor Eastside (3-2, 1-1) had any luck finding the end zone in the first quarter, but Eastside’s fortunes soon changed in the second quarter thanks to the play of senior running back Alex Smith.

The first score of the game came on Smith’s one-yard rushing touchdown. His score was set up by a screen pass that he took for 51 yards on the previous play.

Smith continued his dominant performance throughout the second quarter, accounting for three touchdowns as Eastside scored 28 points in the period. He finished the first half with nine rushes for 43 yards and a touchdown, three receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown and a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Smith finished the game with three touchdowns, and it was his offensive spark that pushed Eastside to an insurmountable lead.

“Alex Smith played a great game,” Eastside head coach Rick Hurst said. “He had a couple of different touchdowns.”

Hurst said that the challenges his team faced up front in previous games helped them to be stronger Friday.

“I’m real proud of them,” Hurst said. “We responded to the smash-mouth, like Chestatee tried to do to us last week, and that gave us a chance to get our offense back on the field.”

Along with Smith and the Eagles’ defensive line, junior quarterback Damario Terrell chipped in on much of Eastside’s scoring.

Terrell completed nine of his 18 pass attempts for 167 yards and two touchdowns. He also had three rushing attempts for 31 yards and a touchdown.

Madison County answered in the second half with 14 points to match Eastside’s second-half total. Both of Madison County’s touchdowns were scored by junior running back Xavier Duncan, who finished the game with 110 yards and two touchdowns on 14 rushing attempts.

“We got a little bit better in the second half,” Smith said. “We tried to change up some stuff with the blocking and the things we were doing up front. We were able to get a couple of scores. We’ve got good kids, we’ve just got to continue to fight and get better every day.”